Quote Originally Posted by Magicyop View Post
It's very similar to what a necromancer caster would get. Necromancers get control of 4 HD of undead per level. Further, you lose many of your abilities when you become a YMZ, just like becoming a skeleton. And as for the group dynamic argument, the same could be said for any character with minions. 4 HD per level is enough to get up to 4 useful minions, or more that are less useful.
Becoming a YMZ is nowhere near "just like becoming a skeleton". As you have it written, you lose class abilities and innate spellcasting, but not Sp or Su abilities which skeletons lose entirely, nor Ex abilities which they lose many of. This is a very important distinction; while it means that human or orc YMZs are functionally skeleton-like meatshields, a beholder YMZ is essentially a full-powered beholder, a mind flayer shockingly loses almost nothing for having its mind eaten, and so on. With the right YMZs, this ability is extremely powerful, more so than nearly any permanent-minion option in the game and far more so than any with as few restrictions as the Yellow Musk Creeper has.

I suggested a possible fix a little earlier; you don't have to pick mine, but you really should know that the YMZ is more powerful than you seem to think. I don't have a problem with large quantities of minions or with reasonably powerful minions, but large quantities of permanent equal-CR or even over-CR minions? That's a potential problem.